Digital technology, praise be, has solved many of the problems we face each day. It is now possible to scan your immediate vicinity for four-star-plus-rated ramen restaurants, to order a cab at the touch of a button and to spend the journey zooming in on pictures of Kim Kardashian’s lubricated bottom. Life — which is the tech industry’s term for “certain logistical issues faced by wealthy urban professionals” — is unquestionably more convenient.

But is it any happier? Many tech workers have been defragmenting their souls recently and finding that the answer is: “No! Not really!” However, that doesn’t mean they’re despairing — far from it. There’s a growing conviction that if we can only find the right data-sets and algorithms, smartphones can solve not only practical matters such as parcel-delivery but imponderables — such as the crushing sense of ennui that threatens to swallow us whole.

This week, London holds its first Hacking Happiness conference. It’s a three-day event at which entrepreneurs and app designers will hob-nob with nutritionists, psychologists, sleep experts, mindfulness coaches, Buddhist monks and various representatives of the “contemplative industries”. It’s modelled loosely on a recent event in San Francisco called Wisdom 2.0, and takes inspiration from the Quantified Self movement, whose adherents believe collecting data about their day-to-day actions will allow them to upgrade their existence.

The speakers include Dr David Cox, the chief medical officer of Headspace, whose lecture is called “Super-You: the things you didn’t know mindfulness could teach you” and Laurence McCahill, of the Happy Startup School, speaking on “Why happiness should be your business model”.

“Two things are happening,” says Sebastian Nienaber, the London-based entrepreneur who raised funds for the conference on Kickstarter. “One is that science has started to provide evidence for things that were once considered to be quite hippy or new age-y — such as the efficacy of meditation. Two is that new technology is able to collect data on things that were once a bit ephemeral and hard to track. People who are health-conscious and hard-working are interested in finding out more about themselves — and now they have the means to do it. For us, the common denominator is about finding out about how you function and taking more responsibility.”

He says it’s hard to put a figure on the value of the emerging digital wellbeing sector — but it is vast. “Taking all companies in the space of wearables — Quantified Self, self-tracking, et cetera — I think this is easily already a multi-billion-dollar industry which is just on the cusp of exponential growth.”

Here are some of the areas he hopes we can “hack” — for the betterment of humanity.

Sleeping

After years of anti-sleep propaganda from the CEO crowd (I blame Margaret Thatcher), finally business leaders are coming around to the idea that going to bed is important. Too important to be left to chance. Sleepio is a new London company whose app helps users to track their circadian rhythms to make sure. One of the company’s founders, Dr Sophie Bostock, is giving a talk called “Sleeping your way to the top”: apparently, the optimal sleeping temperature is 18C. Nienaber believes such “hacks” are beneficial for all. “In the past, people had a very crude idea about how to improve productivity,” says Nienaber. “We never considered that it might be down to how someone feels. If engagement at work is increased, it has a marked effect on the bottom line of the company.”

Eating

It may come as little surprise, in these food-obsessed times, that one of the most downloaded apps on iTunes in 2014 is Fooducate — which allows users to track their nutritional intake. One of the speakers at Hacking Happiness is Dr Daria Rose, a neuroscientist and nutritionist, whose studies concentrate on the links between what we eat and how it leaves us in terms of emotional wellbeing. These include omega-3 oils (for brain function), choline (for memory) and selenium (for mood). “It taps into the zeitgeist of more and more people trying to work out how they function,” says Nienaber. “A lot of my friends are experimenting with themselves in this way. It’s about becoming more self-reliant. If I eat THIS, I feel a lot more vibrant, I feel a lot happier.”

Contemplating

Meditation is the current obsession of the tech crowd. Headspace, which was founded by former monk Andy Puddicombe, was recently valued at $40-60 million. For Nienaber, it’s an example of a tech-on-tech solution. “There’s a big discussion that technology takes us out of the moment and makes us unhappy,” says Nienaber. “However, something such as Headspace shows technology can also help us find the moment. From my point of view, meditation is an inner technology. Headspace’s slogan is, ‘It took scientists 3,000 years to discover meditation’.”

Exercising

“No one has time to dedicate specifically to exercise any more,” asserts the Hacking Happiness website — perhaps they’re all too busy worrying about omega-3? However, from hiring an online personal trainer (such as iBodz.com) to tracking your daily movements with wearables such as Jawbone and FitBit, tech has managed to remodel as “biohacking”.

“There’s a reason why Google is so keen that its employees are well exercised,” says Nienaber. “It really helps people think better as well as work better too.” One of the speakers at the conference is Itamar Lesuisse, whose fitness app, Peak, recently raised more than $1.8million (£1.14million) in funding. It claims to help not only the physical — “Peak is brain training redesigned for the mobile you,” — but to enjoy the positive effects on the mind. “ENJOY BECOMING BETTER EVERY DAY” is its stern imperative.

Being a better person

“It’s often levelled that this movement is somewhat self-indulgent and narcissistic,” says Nienaber. It had crossed my mind that obsessing over the optimal number of brazil nuts to eat to improve your start-up connectivity bordered on something rather worse but I’m glad he said so. However, Nienaber wholeheartedly believes the benefits of the movement are universal. “At the same time, if you do concentrate on improving your own wellbeing, then you’re much more capable of helping other people when they are suffering.

“There’s a fear in the idea that these practices are not part of this religious meme any more. But I had a friend who was a monk for many years, and he said he welcomed the way meditation had become secular. The pursuit of happiness and the process of self-discovery are becoming a lot more tangible and accessible — in a way that is freed from new age and religious. It feels like technology is pointing us back towards our multi-faceted nature as humans.”

Hacking Happiness runs until Saturday at LSO St Lukes, EC1 (hacking-happiness.co). The first 10 readers to email standard@hacking-happiness.co will receive a full ticket for the summit